Lee Pace

Lee Pace stands almost six feet six inches tall and lives on a farm in New York State that he maintains himself. Before becoming the face of galactic empires, he spent years training at Juilliard alongside names such as Anthony Mackie. In 2003, he accepted the role of Calpernia Addams in Soldier's Girl, which could have ended his career before it started. Playing a trans woman at that time was a risk few agents recommended taking.

But critics were won over by his restraint.

The Pastry Chef and the Desert

In 2007, he starred in Pushing Daisies. The series, created by Bryan Fuller, earned him an Emmy nomination and made him the internet's boyfriend long before the term existed. Ned was a sweet character, but Pace was already looking for something drier in his downtime.

While filming for television, he joined Tarsem Singh's most ambitious project. The Fall was shot in 28 different countries with almost no digital effects. Pace pretended to be paralyzed for weeks so the rest of the cast would react naturally to his character.

It was an grueling shoot that almost no one saw at its release.

The Platinum Wig

Peter Jackson cast him as Thranduil in the The Hobbit trilogy, which began in 2012. The actor brought an almost reptilian coldness to the Elven king and moved away from the warmth of his earlier roles. Pace sees his physique as a demanding and thankless tool of the trade.

In 2014, he entered the Marvel universe as Ronan the Accuser. He spent hours in the makeup chair for Guardians of the Galaxy and was barely recognizable beneath the layers of blue paint. He earned a significantly smaller salary than the lead stars, but his serious presence worked as a counterpoint to the comedy of James Gunn.

Television called him back with Halt and Catch Fire in 2014. Joe MacMillan was a tech shark reminiscent of Don Draper, but with an electric fragility. The series ran for four seasons and ended in 2017 as a cult favorite that never drew mass audiences.

And then the empire arrived.

In 2021, production began on Foundation for Apple TV+. Pace plays Brother Day, a cloned emperor who must deal with the decline of his lineage. Filming the second season in 2023 forced the production to relocate to the Canary Islands and Prague to capture the scale of Isaac Asimov's world.

Matthew Foley has been his husband since 2022. They live surrounded by woodworking tools and botany books in a wooden structure Pace built with his own hands. In 2024, the per-episode budget of his main series exceeded 5 million dollars.